Search

Sunday, November 11, 2012

It is essentially a three-way tie. Oregon is rated #1 by the human polls. Notre Dame is rated #1 by the computers. Kansas State is rated #1 overall because it came close in both the human and the computer ratings. Alabama dropped to fourth, as expected.

None of the top three teams have easy schedules, so Alabama is still a contender to reach the championship game and defend its national title. Oregon will have to defeat three top PAC-12 teams in a row (Stanford, Oregon State and either USC or UCLA) to remain undefeated, so they are the most likely to lose. Notre Dame is the least likely of the three to lose, since they only have two more to play and they should have a cakewalk next week against Wake Forest.

Texas A&M soared from 15th to 8th on the strength of their win in Alabama. The Aggies' popularity will make it very difficult for LSU to get a major bowl this year, despite their current #7 ranking, because the BCS system permits only two teams per conference. Alabama will be an obvious choice to win the SEC conference championship; Texas A&M has two easy games left and is currently considered the top marketing choice because of Johnny Football; that could leave LSU on the outside lookin' in. On the other hand, there are more games to play and footballs bounce funny.